Nancy: Volume 2: The John Stanley Library

John Stanley's Nancy #2

by John Stanley, Seth

Designed by Seth, more children�s comic fun from the writer of Little Lulu

The second volume of Nancy in D+Q�s John Stanley Library, elegantly designed by Seth, stars the beloved Brillo-headed Nancy in her own comic book series written by the greatest children�s comics writer of all time, John Stanley. Stanley, the author of Melvin Monster, Little Lulu, and Thirteen Going on Eighteen, puts his own deft sense of humor and superior cartooning on the Ernie Bushmiller creation with spooky Oona Goosepimple, Spike, and Mr.McOnion. Nancy, along with her sidekick, Sluggo, will charm readers young and old with her hilarious, scheming hijinks.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Humor

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Stanley was a comic book creator, best known for his scripting of Little Lulu's comic book exploits from 1945 to approximately 1959. While mostly known for his scripting, Stanley also was an accomplished artist who drew many of his stories, including the earliest issues of Lulu. His specialty was humorous stories, both with licensed characters and those of his own creation. His writing style has been described as employing "colorful, S. J. Perelman-ish language and a decidedly bizarre, macabre wit (reminiscent of writer Roald Dahl)" with storylines that "were cohesive and tightly constructed, with nary a loose thread in the plot". Cartoonist Fred Hembeck has dubbed him "for my money, the most consistently funny cartoonist to work in the comic book medium".

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy volume 2 collects Nancy 167-169 and the 1959 Summer Camp issue, written and laid out by Mr. John Stanley.

I'm not the world's biggest Nancy fan by any stretch but this was good shit. Like I said in my review of Tubby, John Stanley's humor comics are actually funny. The stories centering on Sluggo and Oona Gooseflesh were my favorites but it was all good. Not as mean spirited as I would like but still very funny for kids' comics from the late 1950s.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thousand times more funny than I ever expected. Instead of an old, stale, dated comic strip I got a fun, alive, humorous book full of interesting characters.

[Heather McC · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fav Nancy pieces came from redeeming Spike - all he wanted to do was give Nancy her purse! and the summer camp routine in the back half of the book - a bit on the long side, but still memorable.

[em · Rating 5 out of 5]

LONG LIVE NANCY!!!!!!!

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not terrible, but if I knew I'd enjoy each volume roughly as much as this one I don't think I'd buy any more. I'm sure Stanley tried his best—I love his Little Lulu—but Nancy's just fundamentally (for me at any rate) a not very interesting character, who seems forced into situations that either don't suit her, or could work for any character, and I'm much more interested in situations where that character specifically would make those choices. (I'm a theatre director, in my spare time, so I think about character choices!)

He's introduced new characters, sending Nancy and Sluggo to camp, he's brought Oona (a low rent Wednesday Addams) back, but nothing sparkles. One page of a Carl Bark's Donald Duck or Scrooge comic has ten times the interest of this entire collection. I just don't get the interest in Nancy! (I did read "How to Read Nancy" by Newgarden and Karasik, so I've been taught how to appreciate Nancy, but that referred to the short newspaper panel, the economy and simplicity of line, etc., and doesn't relate to these extended comic book sequences written by Stanley.

Quite simply: I can tolerate Nancy in small doses, but she palls really quickly in a longer format.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Georgina · Rating 5 out of 5]

i like her friend oona goosepimple. weird name! i found it that it was cool that in her fireplace you could go places. oona's house looks like a haunted house. nancy accidentally eats some cookies. oona's grandmother can ride a unicycle! that is pretty active for a grandma! funny stuff.

[Eric Orchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

essential comic book reading! Wonderful.